Pseudonym for Tom Jenkinson – generated sounds and images
from fretless and fretted bass guitar, drum kit, laptop and other hardware that
assault the senses. Stage appearance was like a cross between the Cylons of
Battlestar Galactica and Darth Vader of Star Wars. Since releasing his first
record in 1996, he has gained critical acclaim and cult status for his jazz
influenced experimental sounds that range between highly melodic to assaulting
bombardments of sound and imagery.

Spinning records for over 10 years, DJ Brace has won many
awards. In last night’s performance Brace was slow to find his groove,
hesitating as he pondered what direction he was going to take but when he did
settle into one – a rock-steady beat with touches of funk and jazz the music
carried me into a higher plane of existence. It was an unfortunate choice of
venue due to its proximity to the street and the lack of interest from the
venue’s patrons; his performance deserved far more attention than it got.

A.K.A. of Marc Leclair who has been active since 1996 and has
worked under these AKAs: Horror Inc., David Scott, Nefuka, and Anna Kaufen.
Last night he wore a different musical hat than his usual electro-groove or
Minimal House of his original compositions such as "Train to
Barcelona" (as Akufen) or “Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes (as Marc
Leclair). Instead, we were treated to an eclectic and soulful program of Jazz.

Last night’s ‘performances’ were basically what we think of
when we hear the term DJ
– a selection of recorded songs usually for the purpose of dancing or to provide
a background in a social context.Les «spectacles» de la nuit dernière étaient
essentiellement ce que nous pensons quand nous entendons le terme DJ– une sélection de chansons enregistrées habituellement dans le but
de danser ou de fournir un contexte pour un événement social

I finally was able to experience the true nature of what MEG
really is with this concert at Club Soda last night. It was the right venue.
The opening artist, Jay & Nedd were already “working the turntables”, producing a percussive bass heavy
electro-house groove with a video image of their logo, dancing along with other
images of a ‘masked ball’ – a Basskarade. Many in the audience were masked. The
music was infectious, filling me with a desire to join the ever increasing ‘mob’
of youths dancing to the beats being produced by this young duo of DJs (they
are 20 and 24 years old respectively). But alas, that stage in my life is over
and I had to contend with remaining seated at my table at the back. MEG is
obviously a youth oriented (or young-at-heart) festival. At the start of the
concert, Club Soda was relatively empty, but as an on-coming flood the numbers
began to increase – slowly at first but more so as we approached 10pm. After 90
minutes (at 10:30), when it seemed that their set was about to end, I
reluctantly decided that it was time for me to head back home, unfortunately not
able to hear the remaining artists – the two from Belgium and “Figure” from the
United States who was the headliner. It is that familiar saying “The spirit is
willing but the flesh is weak” or to put it another way “The mind has youthful
tastes but the body wears out before its time.”

What would you do if you knew the world was going to end in
21 days? Would life still have meaning? Would you still hold on to high ethical
standards or would you throw all sense of morality and decency aside? Would you
still look for true love, die alone or just have “end-of-the-world” sex with a complete
stranger or even your best friend’s partner? Lorene Scafaria answers all of
these questions and more in this bittersweet romantic comedy.

As news of a failed attempt to destroy a 70-mile wide asteroid, which is
hurtling towards Earth, is announced over the car radio, Dodge Petersen’s
(Steve Carell) wife just opens the car door and walks away. When he reports in,
to his job as an insurance agent, his heart is not in it; in fact neither is
anyone else. Each has their own way of dealing with the end of the world – some
jump out of windows or hire a hit-man (or drink a bottle of Windex and awake
the next morning with a dog named ‘Sorry’ as Dodge did), some let go of all
propriety and ethics, some just aimlessly wander the streets and others create
havoc by destroying everything (riots break out everywhere in the city and it
is not safe even in your own home).

This brings Dodge together with Penelope "Penny" Lockhart (Keira Knightley), his
downstairs neighbour. She is also having difficulties with her boyfriend. She
is much attached to her vinyl records. As well, she has been taking Dodge’s
mail. One of those letters was from Olivia, a high school sweetheart; sent
three months prior; she writes that Dodge is the love of her life.

Because of the rioting just outside their building, Dodge and Penny realise
that they need to flee the city. He wants to track down Olivia to spend the
‘last days’ in her company and she wants to return to England to see her
parents. They agree that Dodge will bring Penny to a plane to take her to
England as long as she provides the transportation.

Along the way, they encounter many different characters, including an
ex-boyfriend of Penny’s who is a military man and Dodge’s father (Martin
Sheen). Dodge and his father have been estranged for 25 years.

Lorene Scafaria

An entertaining and delightful film that teaches that even as we near
the ‘END,’ it is still possible to reach personal fulfillment and find meaning
to our lives no matter how hopeless it may seem to be.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

A run-down of all the events seen at this year’s festival in
date order, scrolling down. As time permits a more extensive critique (features
only) will appear under the label “Film Box-Office.” They will be identified
with the festival 2012 logo.

Karen, a young attractive and bright aboriginal woman, has
just served a two year prison term for drug possession. She desperately wants
to turn her life around: get a job, see her daughter and reconcile with her
mother. She finds herself all alone, with no one she can turn to for help,
until she finds a haven amongst the residents of a shelter for women like her.
This revelatory drama is about an individual desiring to turn his or her life
around yet finding that society and family has often cut off all contact.

Filmmaker interviews the residents of the Innu community of
Pessamit (formerly Betsiamites) on what it means to be aboriginal. To add a
little ‘movement’ to the film, Chouinard used a slightly experimental style of
editing.

A poetically sensitive and urgent plea for the director’s
brother who has been missing since October 11th 2010.

July 18 Juillet

“Masks, Drawings and Other Laughing Spirits”
Exhibition by Abenaki-Wendat multi-faceted artist (poet, illustrator, author,
playwright, sculptor, and painter) Christine Sioui-Wawanoloath at the Canadian
Guild of Crafts (1460B Sherbrooke West, Montreal Que).{Runs till August 11th 2012; Opening hours are
Tuesday till Friday 10am to 6pm and Saturday from 10am till 5pm. Info: www.guildecanadiennedesmetiersdart.com
; info@canadianguild.com ;
514-849-6091}A constant and fervent affirmation that nothing is more
important than life and everything else is there for the taking. Nothing
happens randomly or by chance; there is a purpose for everything.

Solito explores the mysticism and myths of the Palawan
peoples of the Philippines in this human drama about a brother, Angkadang, who carries
his sister, Punay, about in a hammock. Ever since birth she has had severe
sores on her feet and most of her body. Along the way they encounter several
different people, one of whom is destined to be Punay’s Shaman (healer).

An intense look at the multi-million dollar cigarette
industry run by the Mohawks and the Canadian Government’s attempts to shut the
industry down. The film goes beyond the moral implications of smoking and tackles
the issues of First Nations Sovereignty.

The Maminteuts are a flesh-eating tribe who have been
terrorising the Innu by capturing whole villages, killing the adults and the
eating the children. This film recounts the legend of a young Inuit, Kaianuet, who
tricked a family of Maminteuts and saved the Innu from destruction.

A documentary exploring the history of European contact with
the Guarani peoples of Southern Brazil and Northern Paraguay. The film deals
with their struggles to retain their culture and to integrate into the Spanish
and Portuguese cultures and to reclaim the lands that they had occupied long
before the European colonizers.

1984, a remote community in Eastern New Zealand, Michael
Jackson reigns supreme. To Boy however his father comes first. He lives on a
farm with his grandmother, his brother Rocky, cousins and Leaf his goat. Rocky
believes that due to his ‘superpowers’ his mother died upon giving birth.Boy’s father, Alamein is in jail, but to him
his father is ‘busy’ fighting off the evil in this world. His grandmother
leaves to go to funeral. Alamein returns to recover a bag of money. Discovering who his father really is, Boy’s
‘Childhood fantasies’ must now come to an end.

When French anthropologist and ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss
(1908-2009) visited the Nambikwara Peoples of the Matto Grosso region of
Brazil, lasting changes in how the world was viewed were achieved. This
educational anthropological study revisits the first visit from the point of
view of Lévi-Strauss.

In the 1970s, Dan Everett went with his wife and two
daughters as a missionary in an attempt to convert the people of the Pirahã, an
indigenous tribe who live in four communities on the banks of the Maici River,
a tributary deep in the Amazonian jungles. Up until that time few had heard
their language. When Dan began to learn and understand more of their language
he converted to their way of thinking. He developed concepts about language
that challenge the most fundamental ideas about communication between humans.

When
claims of genocide are levied against Guatemalan dictator General
Efraín Ríos Montt for the massacres of the Mayan people in 1982, Pamela Yates
documentary “When the Mountains Tremble” was to be used as evidence. As the
film itself would be insufficient, outtakes and testimonies of those involved
were also investigated. Strongly shows that the search for truth is like
collecting every grain of sand to get the full picture.

The amazing, miraculous and historical revival of an
aboriginal language long thought to have been dead, proving that any culture
can rediscover itself if there is a unified and determined effort to do so. The
story begins in 1994, when social worker Jessie Little Doe dreams a recurring
vision. A group of familiar people from a different time speaking to her in a
language she did not comprehend yet could somehow identify with. It was the
language of the Wampanoag First Nations of New England (the same Indians who
helped the Pilgrims through their first winter in the Americas).

The Himbas are a semi-nomadic tribe who live in extreme conditions
in Northern Namibia. This film shows that though they have openly accepted
technological progress and have successfully integrated with the ‘Modern World’,
they have been able to retain their traditions. The Himbas portrayed themselves
with comedic genuine honesty.

Documentary showing the hypocritical irony of Presence’s Oil and
Gas Company support of an exhibit of ancient Mayan art in a Paris museum while
Mayans today need to deal with environmental fallout from the company’s
extraction of oil in Guatemala. Is an Ancient Mayan who is ‘dead’ more important
than a one who is alive today who is a victim of neoliberal and irresponsible
policies.

Documentary about how the Wayuu
people who live and work outside of their ancestral homelands in the arid
Guajira peninsula that straddles the border in northern Columbia and Venezuela.
Shawantama’ana
is the name of the terminal in Maracaibo, Venezuela where trucks depart to
bring news, goods and even the people
themselves into their Wayuu ancestral land. Film was a little too long for the
subject.

A modern retelling of an ancient
Innu legend about a superhero saving the world from itself. When Tshakapesh
returns from the Land of Dreams to visit his older sister, he finds that the
world’s forests are being cut down, threatening the earth with total destruction.

5 episodes of about *3m30s each. A
portrayal of 5 indigenous youths (Sébastien, Caroline, Jenny, Diane and Kevin
who live in Winnipeg) as they talk of their family histories and how they came
to discover who they really are. Available on TV5 until October 15 2012:

Victor Street in the West End of
Winnipeg, Manitoba is a neighbourhood that is rife with gang violence and
drugs. Amidst this, Fred Thomas moved with his children from Lac Seul Reserve
in order to escape the cycle of addiction, violence and poverty and to be an
example to his children. This film follows a critical period of his eldest son
Brent’s life as he struggles to avoid the gang violence and drugs and stay in
school.

In 1999, Gloria Black Plume, an
aboriginal social worker, was murdered in an alleyway in Ramsay, an inner-city
working class neighbourhood of Calgary, Alberta. In her honour, filmmaker Xtine
Cook initially just wanted to paint a mural in her honour on the very spot of
her murder. By collaborating with animator Jesse Gouchey, this beautiful and
touching film resulted.

Anishnaabe-Wikwemikong
performance and visual artist Lena Recollet performs “I am Woman”, combining music
and spoken word, uncovering the concept that TRUTH is both ancestral and
concurrent in this experimental video.

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Beyond the Dream: Epic Solitude - Nancy's collection of Poetry & short stories. Contact hovecreekproductions@gmail.com or Click on image to read article. Here is the link to Martin Barry's article: http://martincbarry.weebly.com. Book is also available on Amazon Kindle

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Nancy Snipper is also an accomplished singer/songwriter – banjo player and classical pianist. Her three CDs have garnered much media praise along with her performances (Canada, Mexico, Cuba). Her voice is astoundingly beautiful – velvety in her blues numbers, sensual and sizzling in her folk, rock and country compositions. Now you can own one of her CDs. For enquiries about owning her CDs and/or booking performances contact her at this email: hovecreekproductions@gmail.com. Her CDs help raise money for cancer research.

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Collaborators / Collaborateurs:

Sylvain Richard

Nancy Snipper

Note / Nota:

July 10, 2016:The beginning of a new and exciting chapter! Nancy Snipper's (a.k.a S.N.) first posting on her own blog: http://sntravelandartswithoutborders.blogspot.ca/**********************************************To see all articles on a specific topic, scroll down to LABELS and click on desired LABEL. Full articles will appear one after the other that pertain to that label.Keep scrolling down to view more articles, and at end of page, click on OLDER POSTS to read more.Enjoy!